Rachel Carson and The Sense of Wonder

Yesterday was the 111th birthday of the environmental icon, Rachel Carson. Of course she died relatively young (in her fifties), only two years after publishing her groundbreaking book, Silent Spring, Carson was a credible scientist, even though the companies which made the pesticides she "outed" did everything in their power to discredit her. She also had a deep sense of wonder, an ability to delight in the natural world and rest in its mystery, even as she searched out its scientific processes. That sense of wonder made her a hugely popular writer with books such as The Sea Around Us written well before she wrote Silent Spring.



Life Magazine 1962 Carson chatting with children

I'm reading Lisa Sideris' deeply thoughtful book called Consecrating Science, and in it she cites Carson and Loren Eiseley, as well as others who were grounded in science but resisted "scientism." the glorification of science to the place of religion. They were able to appreciate that reality is mystery and that the two are not in conflict.



I want to be open to wonder, to immerse myself in wonder, all of my days. When we went to Iceland a couple of years ago, and when we spent a month on an island off the coast of Newfoundland last summer, wonder was our daily companion. Glaciers and icebergs will invoke this! Yet catching the fleeting carpet of trilliums close to home, or seeing indigo buntings at our bird feeders for the first time recently I am invited into wonder as well. I love when I can explain the scientific processes at work around me, but I would be impoverished if I lost my delight in the beauty of --dare I say it -- the miraculous nature of Creation.

I have a copy of Carson's final essay, The Sense of Wonder which was published posthumously and is available as a book. I've pulled it out and will honour her memory by finally reading it.

Thank God for wonder.